Managing a fleet of equipment is costly and can be even more costly when your equipment is not getting regularly inspected, inspected for the wrong things, or operated by untrained people who are likely to damage the equipment or injure others on the job site.
Technology and telematics provider HCSS has heard from safety professionals, equipment managers, and project managers about how difficult it is to achieve one simple goal: Perform regular inspections on all equipment with the correct inspection form and the correct equipment name.
HCSS Safety has created a way to ensure that every person using a piece of equipment can instantly pull up the correct inspection form with the equipment name filled in just by scanning a QR code. This feature, called Scan to Inspect, puts safety professionals and equipment managers in control with the ability to link one or many inspection forms to the equipment in the field. It’s easy to quickly add inspection forms to entire types of equipment.
When inspections are performed using the wrong inspection form, key components are missed that could represent potentially severe hazards or shorten the lifespan of critical parts. This can affect budgets more than in the past since machine parts can be on backorder for months, and there are rising OSHA inspections and citations.
The common issue of operators accidentally choosing the wrong equipment name can also hurt production rates. It can seem like a minor problem, but it can cause the wrong equipment to be considered out of service and sit unused until a mechanic can drive out.
If other operators correctly identify the piece of equipment with an actual issue, then you have double the amount of equipment sitting on the sidelines and wasting productive hours. If other operators don’t correctly flag the equipment with an issue, now you have people operating and walking around a 45-ton piece of machinery that can cause an incident.
Problems like these hurt teams aiming to protect their crews, equipment, and the job.
The Scan to Inspect tool expands upon the Equipment QR codes found in the Equipment Details. You can download your QR Codes from the Equipment List in HCSS Safety or your employees in HCSS Skills.
The Equipment Details page acts as a passport across all your job sites and makes it easy for foremen, mechanics, and operators to understand what has been happening on the equipment in front of them. You can see general information, inspection history, and any open issues--including the shop status of issues if you have HCSS's Equipment360.
With this inspection feature, clicking the "Start Inspection" button lets you go from learning about the equipment to inspecting it. The new QR scanning functionality is easy to pick up and has proven popular with teams using HCSS Skills. Foremen can check in the Skills module in HCSS Field if someone has the proper certifications to get behind the controls of heavy equipment. Still, they often prefer to scan an employee's QR code (often a printed laminated sticker placed on a hard hat or employee badge) since it only takes seconds.
From there, they can see an employee's skills list and approve who can operate what machine that day.
Instead of having a generalized “Dozer” inspection form, you can create a “D-5 Dozer” form without worrying that someone will mix it up with the "D-6 Dozer with Ripper" form. You can also get specific if the equipment of the same class has a key difference, like one with secondary hydraulics that should be inspected regularly. Now you can link the forms and never stay up late at night again, worrying if anyone has even looked at those hydraulics since you bought it.
Source: HCSS
